Night crawling

[SLOMatt]

I've been playing around with lighting options for a while and figured I might as well post some pictures. The rock lights are 1w Luxeon LEDs running at ~100ma, the headlights are high output LEDs, and the "baja" lights are 1w Luxeon LEDs running at ~350ma. Everything is just experimental at this point, next up I'm going to mount some Cree XR-Es using 10 degree lenses.

The biggest problem I've had is that the hot glue used to hold everything in place is really not suited for the shock loads the AX-10 sees. At some point when things are finalized I'll switch to a more permanent mounting strategy. For now having lights makes night crawling a lot of fun.

Here are pictures from the Slickrock trail in the Sierra Nevadas.







More pictures can be found at the following url:
http://www.blankwhitepage.com/gallery/ax10lights

- Matt

[hardhead]

topshelf dude

[towtruckmikey]

very nice set-up been thiinking of lights myself,(getting hard to see at night) what kinda power source are you useing?

[zoojunkie]

Originally Posted by towtruckmikey

very nice set-up been thiinking of lights myself,(getting hard to see at night) what kinda power source are you useing?

He's running a nuclear power source.







JK!


He's running a 9.6 NiMh source and a separate 4 cell AA. The 9.6 powers the rock lights, and the separate 4 cell AA powers the front lights. Was that the correct config Matt? I don't remember, I was too busy trying to find my car in the dark. :P

[sbchero]

that looks bad ass.

what about roll overs though? any protection?

[Red Dog Racing]

That looks realy cool man, the light setup is giving you some good useable light keep it up mate

[scootertrash]

That is Frecking sweet dude, And I got a shit load of all kind's of lil' led lite's and shit too just laying around here now ... Now look what you just lite up inside my head dude...Hell-Yeahhhhh, I got some Idea's to work out now... (Hit,The switch there ..."Skippy")...... That is "Sweet" Brotha' .....Clod-Dammmm-it-Skippy-will-you-just-hold-the-dammm-flash-lite-like-I-told-ya-too....!!!...Lmao2.... Ol' Scoot'er I got alot of Kool & very brite lil' led's that will run off about 8 hearing aid battery's for awhile too... And that's alot lighter then that battery set-up that you are using, And I'm, getting about 128 minute outta them at full power on too about 8 brite lil' high beamer's too....... So, I'm also onto this lite up the night thing, that you got going on over there Guy ... but, I love those pic's of your's posted up on here and I want to have them blown up to full poster size then, frame'd and mount'ed too.... If that's okey with you brotha' ...Ol' Scoot'er...

[grimgard]

Great job! I have LED lights on my on road RC and they sell a great kit online. They use a pass through so you dont waste a channel for the lights. I use the same channel as my ESC there is also NO dimming when using the throtle.


http://www.rc-lights.com/index.htm

Here is what they look like on my On Road RC

[swell searcher]

nice job with the LEDs Matt... i dig the overhead lights but like sbc said, any rollover protection? any pics in the daylight of the overhead lights?

[TroopMac]

So what are your ideas for a more permanent mounting strategy? I'm curious.

[freakos]

might as well keep this in the same thread, here's my setup

Running off 9volt battery
- 4x 5mm led up front
- 5x 10mm led on side/rear

will probably add some more long range lights for up front

[silleywilley]

thats pretty bad ass! I might just go to radioshack and start putting together some lights for my scale project!

[XPLORx4]

Wow, while we're on the subject of lights, here's mine:

[MrNate]

Love the way the top one looks. Might want to weld a roll-bar or something to mounth the top lights to.

[SLOMatt]

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments.

The headlights, taillights, and rock lights run off of the 6v that the ESC supplies to the radio (essentially the BEC circuit). During periods of high current draw for the motor and servo these lights all dim slightly.

The baja lights are running off of 4xAA batteries currently because that was handy. There are definitely smaller power options, as some point I plan to move to a higher efficiency power circuit and smaller battery setup.

Unfortunately I don't have any daylight picks of the mounting, but basically I fabbed up two plastic plates that attach to the body posts and support a piece of aluminum on the roof. The lights are attached the aluminum and use it as a heat sink. This was just thrown together for a camping trip, and definitely offers no roll over protection. In fact, the lights were superglued in place and one broke off on the first roll and is currently held in place by tape. Yesterday my new lenses showed up (way cool!) that I'm using for the final version, not sure yet if they will be on the roof or the hood. I'm also waiting for a switching regulator to arrive so I can get rid of the bulky linear regulator I'm currently using. I'll update this thread when I make more progress. The new lenses with a 3w LED really put out a ton of light, heat management is now the major issue.

XPLORx4, are those the rock lights I gave you? They definitely are a lot whiter in color than the "warm" ones on my AX-10, looks good!

- Matt

[XPLORx4]

SLOMatt, yes, they'e the lights you gave me. (Thanks!) They're actually a little on the green side of the spectrum, and a lot brighter than your rock lights. I'm not sure if that's good or bad!

I mounted the rear light to the underside of the top plate (behind the spur gear) and the front light is adhered to a grocery store "club card" that I stuck to the front of the same top plate, to move the light directly above the front links. My RX is mounted on the rear upper links. This way I do not have to unplug any wires to remove the body, which is due to be replaced soon anyway, probably with a red XC-1 body.

[jackal20]

its kick azzz at nite